Bad Blood
by Sarah501B
Summary: Instead, she clung to the vision of his blue eyes, which flooded her with good memories and the hope of a better tomorrow. Looking inside those eyes she knew, deep down, that the loving, caring Elliot Stabler she had met was still alive somewhere.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Soooo... Yeah, I know I have some debts on this website and they will be paid on due time, but this idea popped into my mind and just begged to be done, so here it goes! Please review to let me know how you guys like it! This is EO of course, so if you don't like it, don't read it.  
>I do not own Law &amp; Order SVU or its characters, but I'm waiting for Dick Wolf to auction them. I can offer a few pennies.<strong>_

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><p>Olivia Benson opened her eyes to a bright new day. She rolled to her side tentatively and froze when she felt the mattress to her left empty and cold.<p>

She got up and quickly walked to the bathroom, sighing when she looked at herself in the mirror and saw purple bruises on her arms and legs. Once again, he had been careful enough to only hurt places of her body that could be covered by clothing.

Olivia brushed her teeth, splashed some water on her face, brushed her hair, changed into a comfortable t-shirt and jeans and walked to the kitchen where she smelled coffee. _Shit._

"Good morning, babe".

Olivia turned around with her eyes cast down, mumbled "morning" and accepted the cup of coffee she was being offered.

"I'm sorry I overslept, it won't happen again", she said not daring to look up.

"No, it was fine. You looked like you could use some more rest this time" the man who lived with her answered, putting a plate of waffles and maple syrup in front of Olivia.

She didn't dare to move her fork.

"I didn't poison it, you know?" the man half joked when he saw she wasn't eating. Olivia immediately cut a big slice and shoved it into her mouth.

"Tastes good?"

"Yes. Thank you" Olivia answered quietly.

"Don't speak with your mouth full", the man warned her. Olivia swallowed.

"I'm sorry."

The man got up and walked to Olivia, touching her face and pulling her hair back lightly, forcing her to look at him.

"I would love to sit here all day and watch you eat, but I'm out of time. Gotta go to work. Bye", he said, kissing her forehead.

"Have a nice day, stay safe", Olivia said, looking at the man's face for the first time that day.

In her opinion, his military-like short hair needed to be cut again, but she didn't dare to point it out even if he asked. Instead, she clung to the vision of his blue eyes, which flooded her with good memories and the hope of a better tomorrow. Looking inside those eyes she knew, deep down, that the loving, caring Elliot Stabler she had met was still alive somewhere. She could bring him back, she knew it, but apparently she wasn't trying hard enough.

After Elliot had left, Olivia sighed again and looked at her plate. She wasn't hungry at all, but she knew that not eating would only give Elliot yet another reason to turn her into a punching bag – even though he always seemed to find one, a little something she had missed. Keeping that in mind, she forced the waffles down.

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><p><em><strong>Tun dun! I know, right? Don't worry, folks, next chapter things get a bit clearer. Or don't they? *maniacal laugh* Please review!<strong>_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Hello everyone! I know I had said this chapter would come out earlier on the week, and I'm sorry for the delay, but work has kept me really busy. Anyway, here it is!  
>PS: YES, we all know the 'real' Elliot wouldn't even think about hurting Olivia, but DUH, that's why it's called fan FICTION.<br>As always, I do not own Law & Order SVU and/or its characters. Yet.**_

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><p><span><strong>ONE MONTH EARLIER<strong>

"Three similar cases in a week. I think we have a serial", Olivia said.

"God, I hate these", Elliot sighed.

"Have we found a connection between the victims?" Cragen asked.

"We have, and it's sick. All three of them attended a support group for victims of... Domestic violence", Munch said sternly.

"Please tell me it's a stupid joke."

"Sadly it's not, Elliot, and it gets worse. They were the last ones to join the group which probably means they had just started trying to figure things out."

"Sonofabitch" Fin muttered.

"Why? Why victimize them all over again?" Olivia was as angry as she could be.

"He probably uses rape as an educational method. All victims reported their attacker said the same things: that they were bad wives and that's why their husbands beat them, and how he was going to teach them to behave and be good women", George Huang explained.

"Yet people say feminism is a disease" Elliot scoffed.

"Similar thoughts, you could say. These people are, for some reason, afraid of empowering women, so they use violence, silent oppression and abusive words to make women submissive."

"Yeah, but how are we gonna stop him? I mean, he wore a ski mask, a black trench coat, a condom... We don't even have a hair, and it's not like we can get a list of the new members of this group and put a protective detail on them. It's like AA, these groups are supposed to be anonymous" Olivia analyzed.

"You're right, but the group manager is desperate, said she doesn't want women to feel scared or intimidated, so she's willing to help us stop this psycho. You two are going undercover" Cragen told Olivia and Elliot.

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><p>Had she known things would get this far, Olivia would have tried her best to find a different way to close this case.<p>

It's not that she was afraid of Elliot; she knew he didn't really mean to hurt her, or at least she hoped he didn't. What scared her was that after all this time behaving like a different guy Elliot would end up becoming this guy. Sometimes she felt like he was changing and wished she could talk to George.

Good news was that there hadn't been any new members in the group apart from her, so they could focus on studying the potential next victims and trying to find their perpetrator before he attacked again instead of dealing with the aftermaths.

"Honey, I'm home!" Elliot called from the living room, startling Olivia from her thoughts.

"Oh, hi", she said, leaving the kitchen. "Dinner's almost ready so if you want to take a shower and... You know, get comfortable... There's enough time."

She almost didn't notice she was shaking, but Elliot did. He walked towards her and caressed her face.

"Liv, look at me".

Olivia, who had cast her eyes down as soon as she stopped speaking, looked up at Elliot's blue eyes.

"You do know you don't have to be afraid of me, right? I mean, I really don't mean to..."

"I know, Elliot" she interrupted him. "I know."

"Good" he said and kissed her cheek. "I'm gonna take a shower. And by the way, dinner smells amazing."

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><p><em><strong>AN: So now we know how our dynamic duo ended up on this situation, which I bet is a relief for many of you. Also, I know this is short, for what I apologize, but I wanted this chapter to be all about El and Liv and what exactly is going on. I have a wedding to go to tomorrow and I'll be in a rush the whole day, so I'm probably going to start working on the next chapter on Sunday. Please review!**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Aaaand I'm back! I'm so glad to see you guys' response to this story. I was afraid people would think it was too absurd even for fiction.  
>I don't own them, yadda yadda yadda.<strong>_

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><p>"Do you think he has stopped?"<p>

"It's hard to say, Tori. No one knows for sure how serial criminals' minds work, what makes them start or stop committing crimes. Some of them get caught, some just... Stop acting for unknown reasons. Maybe he thinks the women around here have learned the lesson and moved somewhere else to 'educate' others."

"Cut the psychology crap, Liv, what does your cop instinct say?" Tori, the support group manager, asked.

"He's waiting to strike again."

"Do you think he might go after the other group members if no one joins for a while?"

"I... I don't know. It's a possibility", Olivia sighed.

"I don't want them to be more scared than they already are, Liv... I'm scared too."

"I know, Tori, I know, and I can't imagine how hard this must be on you. But we're working on it. We're gonna get him, I promise."

"Honey, I'm home!" they heard Elliot call from the doorway. "Oh, hello Tori!" he said as he walked into the living room where Olivia and Tori were sitting and talking, relieved that there was no need to play a part. "I just stopped by to take a shower and grab some more money. The guys from the office wanna have a few drinks."

"Oh, I thought we were having dinner together today... But that's great, that's fine, go have fun" Olivia said.

"It won't be long, I promise" Elliot said softly.

"No, it's fine, really. Go have fun, you deserve it. Besides, I'll be with Tori."

While Elliot showered, Olivia and Tori kept talking what little they could about the case, since Tori was still a civilian and Olivia couldn't give her half the information she wanted to. However, after the two women were once again alone in the house, Tori thought it would do no harm if things got a little more serious.

"So, how long have you and Elliot been partners?"

"Uh... About ten years now."

"Wow! That really is a long time. Longer than many marriages nowadays" she chuckled.

"Yeah, I have to admit sometimes it does feel like a marriage, we spend so much time together..."

"And do you go undercover a lot?"

"No, not really. I have gone twice and he has gone once, but it's the first time the two of us go together."

"Is that why you're so scared?"

"What? No! I'm not scared, Tori, I can assure you that. I've faced worse criminals, far worse. Also, me and El? We have each other's backs."

"That's not what I meant, Liv."

_Shit._

"Well, then I don't understand what you're talking about" Olivia lied through her teeth.

"I'm talking about how scared you are of your partner, who also happens to be your make-believe husband who beats you. How long has this been going on? Does your captain know you're in this situation?"

"No. No! Tori you got it all wrong. Elliot would never land a hand on me. Or on any woman for that matter. He's an SVU detective for heaven's sake! He has a wife and five children! It's just that... This job... Sometimes it makes you do things you don't like. Put yourself at risk so people won't get hurt. We take our oath very seriously."

"I don't doubt that, Olivia. It's just that... Seeing you two when he arrived... I swear it felt like you could beat yourself up if you said a word he didn't like."

"It gets easier to play the part if you do it all the time" Olivia lied again.

"Now _that_ is something I don't believe for a split second. But if you don't want to talk to me about it, then you don't have to. You should really talk to someone though. Maybe even ask your captain to pull you out. We can find another way to catch this guy."

"No. It has to be done, Tori. And I'm fine. Really."

The way Tori looked at her, Olivia thought she would disagree, but she didn't.

"Sure" Tori said. "If you say so..."

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><p>Later that night, Olivia laid in their bed restlessly, waiting for Elliot to arrive. Tori had left hours ago.<p>

Suddenly, she heard a crash from the living room. Without thinking twice, she grabbed her gun and ran outside their bedroom ready to shoot whoever had broken in. It was only Elliot, though. He had probably tripped over something since it was quite dark inside.

"Jesus, Elliot, you scared me" Olivia said, putting the gun on the coffee table and running towards the man to help him up. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Elliot looked up at her, then at the gun on the table, then back at Olivia.

"Were you gonna shoot me, Livvie?" Elliot slurred.

Olivia froze and felt her stomach drop. He was drunk. This couldn't be any good.

"No, honey, of course not. I just brought it with me in case it was a thief... I would never hurt you, you know that." she said, her voice trembling. "You have to know that" she whispered.

Elliot looked intently at her and Olivia prayed he would believe her.

"You know... I think... That you were going to shoot me. And that's really bad." Elliot stood straight the best he could before speaking again. "You've been a very bad girl, Livvie. And you know what that means, don't you Livvie?"

'El... Please..." Olivia whispered, but Elliot didn't give any signs he had heard her.

It was going to be a long night.

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><p><em><strong>AN: I have to admit: writing the final part of this chapter broke my heart! But it's necessary so you guys know how bad things are and how hard the case is hitting both of them. We get to see Elliot's point of view pretty soon!**_

_**Also, it might take a little bit longer for me to post the next chapter this time; I want to focus on my other stories too. It has been forever since I wrote a new chapter to one of them and it just isn't fair. Take a minute to check them if you want to. Please review!**_


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